Shockers at Shocker Volleyball Classic

[1972Shocker]

Coming down in talent, not geographically, I assume.

You assume correctly. They had 2 very impressive freshmen in their starting lineup tonight. The setter Kendra Wait and the 6-2 outside hitter Norah Sis. Looking at their roster the other two freshman are 6-3 middle Abbey Milner and 6-5 outside hitter Eva Magill.

OTOH, Creighton will be replacing 4 very good seniors (Zimmerman, Hickman, Welty and Bottomly) either next year or the following year. Hard to know who might be back for another year for sure with the free Covid year.

[B&Gpassion]

While the effort and execution was clearly lacking this morning (not surprising to me after last night) the ladies certainly turned it around and at least battled this evening.

That CU team will lose at most 4 more matches the rest of the season, and possible a few less. Good fight in the Shocks tonight!

Had a company function this evening and couldn’t attend, unfortunately. Could have used seeing us compete like we apparently did after what I saw this morning. Good for the girls for not folding the tent and getting after it. Hard to be encouraged after a sweep from the Jays but they are on another level (or two) right now and we really needed some sort of moral victory for sure.

[flyingMoose]

Brylee is on the All-Tournament team.

[1972Shocker]

KBB's comments on the match from the Creighton website:

"I thought Wichita played a great match. I thought it was the best that we've seen them play," said Creighton coach Kirsten Bernthal Booth. "We still did the things we've been hanging our hats on. We stayed in long points. We did disrupt them some with our serving. It was a grind. Obviously game one and game two could have gone either way. I actually said during it 'this is so good for us' because we haven't had a ton of competitive games, so I like that we were in some of those situations of having to work through those things."

Creighton is off to its best start in program history at 12-1 with its only loss to #3 Nebraska.

[flyingMoose]

I thought Creighton used the short serve and tips a lot - to their advantage. A scouting thing?

[1972Shocker]

I thought Creighton used the short serve and tips a lot - to their advantage. A scouting thing?

I'm not sure it was a scouting thing. May have been but my recollection was most of those short serves were made by Jaela Zimmerman who had all 4 of Creighton's service aces in the match. I'm thinking it is more a weapon that Zimmerman has in her arsenal and was able to deploy it very effectively. Perhaps it was a lack of scouting by the Shockers not to be ready for that when Zimmerman was serving.

[flyingMoose]

I'm not sure it was a scouting thing. May have been but my recollection was most of those short serves were made by Jaela Zimmerman who had all 4 of Creighton's service aces in the match. I'm thinking it is more a weapon that Zimmerman has in her arsenal and was able to deploy it very effectively. Perhaps it was a lack of scouting by the Shockers not to be ready for that when Zimmerman was serving.

Upon further review, three of Zimmerman's four aces were during the Skylar-sub fiasco. Probably mostly taking advantage of the Shocker disorganization. But your point is well taken - even if you "scout" the possibility, you still have to have the serve in your arsenal.

[flyingMoose]

Totally forgot about the Show. Anything interesting?

[WuDrWu]

I wish they would podcast these. I need to talk to someone at WSU about this. Fortunately radio rewind allows to listen to the last 24 hours. I'm listening now and will highlight below.


Mike starts with rehashing the weekend. Asks Lambo if he's ahead or behind of where he thought they would be.

Lambo says he's a little behind due to Covid and injuries. He then goes a little Lambo on how experience works.

All things considered, thrilled where they are right now.

Mike mentions the loss of BigMac. Next man up. BigMac was way ahead of schedule playing great, but they always thought Morgan Stout would be the M1 of the future. But Morgan hasn't played competitive volleyball for 3 seasons. Remember what she's like now, because she's going to be great in the future.

Mac's injury has happened before, not at the ankle, could be easier to recover from but not sure how long that will be. Hopes she can make it back. Everyone wants 5 Middles, we have 3, now 2. Morgan and Natalie are all we have right now. We're going to have to train differently (not yet but soon) and maybe get some reps from others that aren't playing now....if they aren't starting at their position now, they might as well be ready for a different position (mentioned SophiEEE, Lexi and Skylar) ala Kim Wadsworth. Get them ready in case we have to go there (knock on wood).

There are other options with Sophia on the right but they haven't really done a lot with that yet.

Discussed Morgan again. Morgan is the warrior on the team. Nobody tries harder, nobody competes more than she does. It's what makes Lambo know she's going to be great. That girl is all in with her fire and energy. Every coach wants players like that. She can be next level good. It will be about tempo and accuracy.

Discussed the difficulties of the last few seasons and distractions. Covid, politics, what side you're on, are they more important than sports? Can they be more important for at least 3 hours a day while they practice? Wants people that want that....feels like they finally have a group that thinks the same way. (MY interpretation only).

South Dakota not unlike other big wins that we probably shouldn't have won (Georgia in the Heskett center, UNI 06 after Go Five graduated, mentioned others). Could have been any outcome between SD, Wyoming and WSU. Any of the 3 could have been 0-2 or 2-0.

Lambo used to work on cars, pulled motors, changed spark plugs....never got going vs Wyoming. Trap match in several ways. Never came out of the gate and hope a lessoned learned.

Really competitive Creighton team. Lambo doesn't think they'll lose the rest of the way. Could finish 32-1 wouldn't surprise him. Maybe Marquette gets them, but he doubts it.

Talks about SophiAA. lol Hasn't been as good as we want, but she's getting moments. Struggled with serve and pass this weekend, but it's been better and D has been good (even though mistakes have been made). Defensively we need to be connected and we've played good defense statistically along the back with "tryers" making people having to earn kills.

Can't really explain SophiAA's slow start. She has physical advantage and should be able to hit high balls hard and find the opportunities and find a space and play with power. High and hard and see how it goes. Hopefully some signs of things to come on a little breakout play this weekend.

Talked about Brylee and her maturation. Missed time but looked good this weekend. Working on Brylee attacking out the back row. Imagine not having a 3 point shooter....you'd be in trouble, and we need someone that can not just take swings but score.

Also discussed Brylee on the right. Her numbers are better than SophiAA on the right. It's real. Numbers suggest that maybe SophiEEE and Kailin on the left and Brylee on the right has to be looked at because of the numbers. Lambo wants to be more physical than that rotation, but it's interesting.

Talks about setters. Lambo: In football if you have 2 QBs you don't have any. Wonders if we don't look like that.

Thought Kaycee would be better, Lauren Phillips earned the job and was better at the end of preseason. Kaycee was better after Lauren returned from Covid. Needs Kaycee to go from good to great. Doesn't feel like we have the best setter often. You know for YEARS we could say we KNEW going in we had the best setter on the floor. Can't do that now. 2017 lookback....what do have that's good enough without working hard? Maybe 3 things (Abbie's reach, Georgia's platform). You're going to have to try hard and work and perform to be great.

Who is good enough to be comfortable? Need to perform. Need leadership.

We needed at least 5 girls at really high levels to beat CU. We didn't have that against CU. Will need that against Houston, close to 5 against Tulane.

Will talk about the upcoming schedule after the break.

Tulane President said we're open for business September 25. It's not the 25th so we'll play Tulane in Houston this weekend and play both Tulane and Houston and stay at the same hotel etc. Doesn't think it makes much of a difference but it saves some travel money and that helps recruiting.

Thinks Tulane has made themselves with transfers (Northwestern) and freshman (setter that is scoring) but have had a couple of headscratching losses so who knows.

Houston is really good.

We don't have many options right now. Lily probably safe at Libero. Kaycee most successful most of the time. It was Lauren before Covid but it's not now.

Talked about crowd, fun to be home. Enjoyed fans saying hi. It's better everywhere. It's still about protocols. Test tomorrow and keeping fingers crossed.

See you next week!

[1972Shocker]

Thanks for that recap Doc. No comments about the Creighton match?

[WuDrWu]

Thanks for that recap Doc. No comments about the Creighton match?

Sorry, don't remember too much about that. I do think he said they competed better and he was happy about that. A good team with a mix of experience and youth is what I heard last night too. Just didn't seem to dwell on that match very much on his show (best as I can remember).